The present invention relates to a fryer which is particularly usable for frying food products such as french fries, small-size fish, meat rolls and parts of farmyard animals.
Some known fryers are constituted by a container for oil, which can be heated by means of adapted armored electric resistors.
An appropriately perforated basket, which contains the product to be fried, is then placed manually inside said container.
Said fryers, which are mostly for domestic use, furthermore have a lid which must be removed once the cooking of the product is completed in order to remove the basket and drain the oil from the product prior to eating it.
Said known types of fryers naturally entail long cooking times and furthermore require the presence of an operator for the introduction and removal of the product, and for controlling the emission of fumes into the environment.
As a partial solution to these disadvantages, fryers are known which are internally provided with a basket which is mechanically overturned, after a preset time, so as to convey the fried product into a vessel which is adjacent to the container.
Even these known types of fryers, however, have disadvantages; in fact known fryers can only provide a relatively small quantity of fried food at the end of each cooking cycle, because only one single portion of the food can be cooked during each cycle.
As a partial solution to these disadvantages, Italian Patent No. 1192101 (by the same Applicant, filed on Sep. 26, 1985 with application No. 41601 A/85 and granted on Mar. 31, 1988), discloses a fryer comprising a container which has, inside it, a carousel for a plurality of perforated baskets which cooperate with mechanical means; some of said mechanical means are arranged outside the container to raise the baskets and others are arranged inside the container to allow the overturning of said baskets.
This fryer furthermore comprises, inside the container, a first removable conveyor for conveying the product to be fried into the baskets, as well as a second conveyor, which is also removable, for conveying the fried product to a closeable opening.
The fryer furthermore comprises means for sensing the position of the baskets and an external centralized logic unit for actuating the drives.
Though this fryer undoubtedly offers valid solutions to problems occurring in prior known devices, it has some disadvantages: first of all, it is structurally very complicated and is therefore subject to frequent jamming during the lifting and overturning of the baskets. Furthermore difficulties during the movement of said baskets have been observed.
In addition, the need to provide the positioning of the baskets inside the container, as well as their lifting and overturning, requires that the container for the fryer have considerable dimensions.
Finally, in view of the structural complexity of the means for moving, lifting and overturning the baskets, there is the need for very assiduous maintenance which considerably raises the management costs associated with the fryer, making it uneconomical.